Just wanted to let you know of something that happended to my other half last night while driving back from work in our Type-S 2.2 CDTi.

He had checked the oil level only about a week ago and all was OK. The car has done about 4500 miles and as yet we have not had to top up the oil at all. Well coming off the M40 last night the "Check Oil Level" warning light came on. He pulled off the M40, parked up and popped the bonnet. He couldn't believe what he saw, oil was splattered everywhere over the engine. While the engine was cooling he tried to wipe off most of the oil before opening up the filler cap to top up so he could get home. This is when he noticed that the filler cap had somehow worked loose and where the oil had come from. (He first thought that it was some press down and pop off filler cap but realised that infact it was as screw cap but it was not tight at all).

After topping up with oil so that he could get home we rightly or wrongly pressure washed the oil from the engine as soon as we could, popped off the bonnet cover under the bonnet lid which was saturated in oil above the filler cap and washed the car. I took the car around the block a few times and all seems OK. At the moment it is sat on the drive with the bonnet up in the sun.

Has anyone had anything happen to them like this or was it just us? We have never had to take the oil filler cap off and therefore it had never entered our heads that we should have checked that the cap was tight when we first had it!

This exact thing just happened to me this afternoon although I'll blame my self and say I didn't put the cap on properly when I last topped up. A bit of steam under the bonnet and 2.5 litres of topping up later and everything seems fine now, cleaned my engine bay as much as possible but I've not used any water just a cloth. The oil is synthetic so shouldn't do any damage, I'd be much more worried about the minerals in water.

Almost a very expensive lesson, as it stands touch wood everythings ok.........only 5 weeks old so would have been a disaster.

Just wanted to let you know of something that happended to my other half last night while driving back from work in our Type-S 2.2 CDTi.

He had checked the oil level only about a week ago and all was OK. The car has done about 4500 miles and as yet we have not had to top up the oil at all. Well coming off the M40 last night the "Check Oil Level" warning light came on. He pulled off the M40, parked up and popped the bonnet. He couldn't believe what he saw, oil was splattered everywhere over the engine. While the engine was cooling he tried to wipe off most of the oil before opening up the filler cap to top up so he could get home. This is when he noticed that the filler cap had somehow worked loose and where the oil had come from. (He first thought that it was some press down and pop off filler cap but realised that infact it was as screw cap but it was not tight at all).

After topping up with oil so that he could get home we rightly or wrongly pressure washed the oil from the engine as soon as we could, popped off the bonnet cover under the bonnet lid which was saturated in oil above the filler cap and washed the car. I took the car around the block a few times and all seems OK. At the moment it is sat on the drive with the bonnet up in the sun.

Has anyone had anything happen to them like this or was it just us? We have never had to take the oil filler cap off and therefore it had never entered our heads that we should have checked that the cap was tight when we first had it!

I can't understand how one can mistake the cap type - as the cap (at least mine) cannot be removed without rotating it to the left (unless your name is Obelix

After the incident with our oil filler cap, the car has run absolutely fine since. Mind you I am absolutely paranoid about the filler cap being tight now once we have toppped up the oil. Hopefully yours will be OK too (theako2k).